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Parents describe Boston Marathon bombing suspect's Russia trip

By Arsen Mollayev Associated Press

Posted:
04/21/2013 08:59:27 PM MDT

Updated:
04/21/2013 09:00:07 PM MDT

Click photo to enlarge

The father of the Boston bomb suspects, Anzor Tsaraev, speaks to the media at his home in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia, Friday, April 19, 2013. The two ethnic Chechen brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, turned suspects in US marathon bombing, one dead, one still alive and at large on Friday, came from Dagestan, a Russian republic bordering the province of Chechnya. (AP Photo/Kurban Labazanov)

MAKHACHKALA, Russia -- The parents of Tamerlan Tsarnaev insisted on Sunday that he came to Dagestan and Chechnya last year to visit relatives and had nothing to do with the militants operating in this volatile part of Russia. But the Boston bombing suspect could not have been immune to the attacks that savaged the region during his six-month stay.

Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are accused of setting off the two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 that killed three people and wounding more than 180 others.

Three days later, investigators say they killed a university police officer, carjacked a man and led police on a chase that resulted in a shootout that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead. His younger brother escaped, but was captured the next day, alive but badly wounded.

When the two ethnic Chechen suspects were identified, the FBI said it reviewed its records and found that in early 2011, a foreign government -- which law enforcement officials confirmed was Russia -- had asked for information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI said it was told that Tsarnaev was a "follower of radical Islam" and was preparing to travel to this foreign country to join unspecified underground groups.

The FBI said that it responded by interviewing Tsarnaev and family members, but found no terrorism activity.

No evidence has emerged since to link Tsarnaev to militant groups in Russia's Caucasus. Sunday, the Caucasus Emirate, which Russia and the U.

But a trip Tsarnaev made back to Russia in January 2012, has raised questions.

His father said his son stayed with him in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, where the family lived briefly before moving to the United States a decade ago. The father had only recently returned.

"He was here, with me in Makhachkala," Anzor Tsarnaev told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "He slept until 3 p.m., and you know, I would ask him: 'Have you come here to sleep?' He used to go visiting, here and there. He would go to eat somewhere. Then he would come back and go to bed."

He said his son went to the mosque for prayers, but would not have come under the influence of radical imams, who he said stay up in the mountain villages.

A woman who works in a small shop opposite Tsarnaev's apartment building said she only saw his son during the course of one month last summer. She described him as a dandy.

"He dressed in a very refined way," said Madina Abdullaeva. "His boots were the same color as his clothes. They were summer boots, light, with little holes punched in the leather."

Moscow has given Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov a free hand to stabilize Chechnya following two wars between federal troops and Chechen separatists beginning in 1994, and his feared police and security forces have been accused of rampant rights abuses.

What began in Chechnya as a fight for independence has morphed into an Islamic insurgency that has spread throughout Russia's Caucasus, with the worst of the violence now in Dagestan.

In February 2012, shortly after Tamerlan Tsarnaev's arrival in Dagestan, a four-day operation to wipe out several militant bands in Chechnya and Dagestan left 17 police and at least 20 militants dead. In May, two car bombs shook Makhachkala, killing at least 13 people and wounding about 130 more. Other bombings and shootings targeting police and other officials took place nearly daily.

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